Blog
Plant art, culture and politics
Some plants are exchanged as tokens of love, some are glorified as national emblems, while some are labeled as 'invasive' or 'pest'. We hope to plant some seeds of doubt regarding the conventionally accepted botanical labels and cultural consumption of specific plants in the Netherlands, and beat around the bush for a while as we expand our focus on the contexts in which such knowledge is formed.
Let us step into the messy jungle of contested meanings, conflicting interests, political agendas surrounding plants — the rich and dense culture of nature.
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Re-discovering Fennel
During my internship at Mediamatic, amongst other projects, I conducted research regarding the Hortus project, alongside my colleagues Ada de Gooyer and Alix Briere and with the precious collaboration of herbalist and educator Lynn Shore . Our focus was on the relationship between plants and female…
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Seafoam
Queering the Aphrodisiac
As a part of our internship at Mediamatic we created a series of aphrodisiacs that is: 1) Queer - Targeting audience of different sexual orientations and physiques 2) Vegan - Instead of using animal male parts, using vegetal female or hermaphrodite parts as ingredients, in addition…
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Stories of the Tulp
How Tulip Became The Quintessential “Dutch Flower”
Let us dive into the stories of a family that the Dutch are rather familiar with. What is in a name that which we call a Tulp?
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Flower Politics
National Flowers and Issues Surrounding their “Nativeness”
Enter the battlefield of contested meanings and conflicting interests through which political entities form floral emblems, and vice versa.
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Growing In & Out with Artist Minji Choi
Plant, Something that (Doesn’t) Love a Wall
Born in Seoul, South Korea and based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Minji Choi has a transboundary persona. As an artist, she devotes herself to reexamining ‘belonging’ and ‘nativeness'. In her body of work created in 2019, Choi addresses the shifts in the Dutch attitude towards the American Black…